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Archive for the ‘Fish’Mar 16, 10 Comments (0)
 Yellowface Pikeblenny Hey gang, here’s by far one of the coolest things I saw on my Bonaire trip, this is a tiny male Yellowface Pikeblenny!! Just so you have some kind of an idea of how small this thing was go and grab a round toothpick and lay it on your computer table and then look at the photo, that’s about the same size as this guy was. So now imagine your toothpick with an attitude! I wish so badly I could take credit for finding this but as usual it was pointed out to me by the one and only “Eagle Eyes Sal”. This was found again at the Eden Beach area in all the sand and rock rubble. When Sal first pointed to it I really had to get close and look, it was so small. He lives in a sand tube and from what I observed has two females nearby that constantly fight over him, yeah what a life. I ended up spending around three total hours with him in 25 feet of water on two different dives. As I watched he would slowly come out of his home and if a female was near he would flare his dorsal fin up and open his mouth as wide as he could, what a little show-off. The females are very plain looking and do not have that cool fin or bright colors on the mouth and seemed to be more brave than the male. In the hours I laid there all three of them freely swam all around me and at times within inches showing no fear at all. So yet another cool fish I have never seen and never would of if it wasn’t for Sal, Bonaire Rocks!!
Today has been another crazy busy day. I took the dogs out to the trails and did trail maintenance for two hours and by 9:30 it was so bloody hot we all went running home. I then spent hours driving around doing errand after errand. I have my Geocachers arriving on the cruise ship Thursday morning so I spent a lot of the day preparing for that all day adventure. Aimee is still in training for her triathlon that is coming up soon, she is a swimming, running, biking machine!
Still lots to do this evening, talk to you more tomorrow, Barry
Mar 10, 10 Comments (0)
 School of Goatfish Good evening friends, I have to be quick this evening as Aimee and I are headed out for a fun night dive at the Superior Producer. But this time instead of diving on the ship we are going to just explore the reef something none of us have ever done. We are meeting our friend Marco there at 7:30 tonight, that’s just and hour and a half away.
Here’s another great Bonaire reef scene from Leonora’s reef on Klein Bonaire. This was a photo I almost missed. We were all on our way back and I was watching something out in deeper water and this coral head you see here was to my left. When I looked at this mountain of coral as I passed there where no fish and nothing stood out so I kept going. Well moments after passing I found a trumpetfish shadowing a parrotfish and joined in the pursuit. Well wouldn’t you know it I ended up going right back to the same coral head I had just passed but this time there was a beautiful school of Goatfish all stacked on top of each other hiding from all the divers on the other side, I would have missed it for sure if I would have kept going. These Goatfish spend most of the day digging in the sand for food and when in resting mode gather together in schools like this.
I need to get going, have to load the car and grab some food. See you tomorrow, Barry
Mar 9, 10 Comments (0)
 Web Burrfish Good evening from the Caribbean melting pot!! Well today like every day off flew by so fast it made my head spin!! This morning I grabbed the dogs and a big push broom and went out to do 3 hours of trail work. This sounds like a big deal but when your out there sweeping and raking time goes by very fast and if it wasn’t for the scorching heat I would have stayed longer. On our way back home this morning Inca jumped into the ocean to cool off and swam out a little ways. I noticed some waves coming in behind her and called for her to turn around and come back now! Well she almost made it but one wave picked her up and like a dog at a talent show she was surfing! I was laughing pretty hard as that wave picked her up and carried her the whole way in. Her eyes were huge and upon touching down onto shore she got a case of the crazies and just started racing around in circles, it was so funny! After washing dogs and feeding myself I took off to do my “honey do list” and then spent the rest of the afternoon sorting thru hundreds of pictures I just took from Bonaire. At 4:00 I took off on a long bike ride to savor my freshly cleaned trails from this morning, it was hot and dusty but it was fun!
Ok on to the good stuff! For years Aimee and I have been hunting for this fish and finally we found one in Bonaire. This is beautiful Web Burrfish we found hanging out in the rubble at Eden Beach right in front of the Wannadive dive shop. This incredible creature is in the Porcupinefish family but is in a class of his own. When we first found this guy he was un-inflated and laying kind of hidden in the rocky rubble but seconds upon our arrival “which was very quiet” he started to puff-up into the ball you see here! I have no clue what made this guy so upset but he was on the defense from the start, maybe he had a bad run-in with other divers or some big scary fish? These fish are not fast they just inflate and float and usually keep their backs to you at all times. For me this one of my highlights of the trip to finally get to see one of these and days later I would get to see another on Klein Bonaire, such a great place! How big was this guy you ask?? I think close to a foot and was just so colorful, I have a face view as well and will be sending that out in a few days, stay tuned.
It’s dinner time, talk to you tomorrow, Puffed Up Web Burrfish Regards, Barry
Mar 5, 10 Comments (0)
 Bonaire, Red Beryl Good evening from Hotville!! Man-o-man today was a warm one!! With very little wind a blowing this place can get very uncomfortable quick! Aimee and some of the other trainers went for a nice ocean swim today in-between training sessions to cool off and I hid in the air-co all day. My dearest is training for a triathlon that she will compete in on the 28th, I will of course be helping her and taking photos, cool huh?? I finally got gas in the car but I heard that the strike is not over so I really filled it up!!
Here’s another Bonaire photo that when I saw it I thought, “dang that would make a great cover” it was picture perfect! This is a beautiful school of Mahogany Snappers hanging out in the safety of the gorgonian forest. This was taken at a dive site called “Red Beryl” which is the 7th dive site past the salt mines, I highly recommend it!! I have other great shots of this area still on their way to you and in one of the photos I found a tall gorgonian on top of the reef and all these fish were under this one single soft coral, it was truly beautiful!! I again must thank Sal and Patty for taking me here, I kind of told them what I was looking for and they knew just the right spot, it’s great to have friends! I did find out once again just how hard it was to shoot silver reflective fish as the flash can easily bounce off their shiny bodies so I kept back further than normal this time and for the most part it seemed to work. I don’t think this was very deep because we were on the way back from the dive, I am guessing around 30 feet and as usual the Bonaire waters were just spectacular. I’m having diving with-draws these past few days, I sure wish I was back there, the gang at Wannadive and my new friends made leaving very difficult.
That’s about it, I smell pizza!! Hope you all are well, thanks for all the notes, till tomorrow, Barry
Mar 4, 10 Comments (0)
 Bonaire frogfish Hi friends, being that we have no gas in the car we are having to stick very close to home today. I did take off on a brief sight seeing tour to see if the gas stations were in fact really OUT of gas and sure enough it’s really gone!! It was easy to see while out that the streets were very empty for a Thursday afternoon, I guess I was not the only one low on fuel. I did manage to pick up some more food but then went directly home to save what little gas we have left. Good times!!
Aimee and I took the dogs over to the trails behind the aquarium this morning, she ran and I rode the bike. This was the first time since we have been here that I have ever seen my woman run and I must say she’s pretty fast and in great shape. We did a three and a half mile loop and some parts of the trail it was difficult to keep up to my bionic woman, she keeps a fast pace up the hills while I slow down quite a bit. I really wish it would rain, it sometimes looks like it going to but time after time we get nothing!
Here’s a beautiful Longlure Frogfish that my buddy Sal took me to see on the last dive I did Tuesday morning. This incredible creature was just sitting there on top of those sponges with his little fishing lure out trying to catch his morning breakfast. We found this beauty at my favorite dive site in Bonaire in front of Wannadive at Eden Beach, it’s one of the best places I found for so many cool creatures. My friend Sal has the eyes of a hawk underwater and proved over and over that he was the hands down fish finding master of the Caribbean, need to get him to come here to help me find stuff! I laid on the sand watching this guy for quite awhile by myself, he’s so fascinating especially when he wiggles his little white fishing lure trying to attract some poor unsuspecting fish which he’s very, very good at!!!
Aimee has been watching a series my mom sent to us called “Life on Mars” all day and I am going to take off on a bike ride in an hour. Talk to you all tomorrow, Barry
Mar 3, 10 Comments (0)
 Bonaire Reef Scene Good evening from HOT Curacao!! Still no rain and the desert is getting as dry as a bone and is quickly turning into a dust bowl! After work this evening I gave Aimee a much needed break and took the dogs out for a quick walk and really got a first hand look at how dry our little island is and it’s so early in the year for this? It was a bit strange being back at work today I kept looking around for my dive gear but remembered it was all at home airing out still. We had some kind of a strike going on at the oil refinery and they were telling folks to get gas because no one knew how long it would last? So Aimee took the car and headed out to fill up but found out immediately she couldn’t even get close to the station as there was a line of cars waiting a mile long so she just went back home. And because of no gas that means other services are down as well like making breads and stuff you don’t even think of so like a good girl she raced to the store and joined in the madness of everyone stocking up. Our electricity was off for most of the afternoon but came back on before I got home so that is good although no telling how long it will last so if you don’t hear from us that’s why! Ahh the joys of living on a Caribbean island!
Here’s another shot from O’l Blue in Bonaire. This a big beautiful Schoolmaster (Snapper) just hanging out in front of a gorgonian with his head into the current. I saw these fish everywhere on this trip, sometimes by themselves as seen here and many times in small schools. The first dive we did was by far the clearest dive we did the whole trip you could see for a hundred feet in every direction, it was great. Again thanks to Sal, Patty, Scott and Tammi for constantly waiting on me while I ever so quietly moved in for shot after shot, it takes a bunch of patience to get a nice picture with fish in it sometimes. I have so many fun shots from this trip and will be sending them out one by one, so again stay tuned for more.
Need to close early just in case the power goes out again, see you tomorrow, Barry
Mar 1, 10 Comments (0)
 Secretary Blenny Hi everyone. Last e-mail from me. Barry should return tomorrow night. I just spoke to him and he has had a wonderful time with everyone just being great to him. He was currently over at our friend’s house having a nice home-cooked meal. They did 3 dives today and tomorrow he heads out for another dive before heading home. We are missing him here!
Today’s photo is of a secretary blenny. This type of blenny finds its home in coral heads (many times brain coral) or in old, forgotten feather worm holes, which is what this one found. Blennies are tiny creatures and many times the only part you see is their head as they bravely shoot in and out of their safe little homes in search of a quick snack before darting in once again tail first. They have a cute little duck-billed face and eat mostly plankton as it floats by. In order to see them a diver needs to just settle down at a coral head and let the blenny get used to you and curiosity usually draws them out. You can see his size by looking at the coral polyps he is just above. They are much smaller than your pinkie finger.
Well I hope the Monday began a good week for all. Thanks for all the fun replies to my blog, I appreciate it a ton. See you later…
Aimee
Feb 27, 10 Comments (0)
 Juvenile Angelfish Hello everyone. I hope your Saturday was a nice one and that you have a good Sunday to follow. Today’s photo is of a juvenile Queen Angelfish. All angelfish have this distinctive shape, even when they are young, but with many fish, this one included, the juvenile colors can be different from the adult colors. Only the juveniles have these distinctive bright blue stripes. As the fish matures they will loose these stripes and have more of an overall yellow/blue/turquoise color. As they mature also you will get the classic “crown” for which the Queen Angelfish gets its name. If you look closely you can see the beginnings of it even now. As adults they are quite shy fish and usually hide behind a rock before a diver can get very close. But, if you are patient and just relax and wait, they are also curious and usually begin to peek around that rock to see who is looking at them. Well, the juveniles are even more skittish and it takes a tremendous amount of patience to get a nice photo. Luckily my husband has plenty of patience….
Hope you enjoy. Have a great weekend.
Aimee
Feb 23, 10 Comments (0)
 Yellow Seahorse Hi friends, here’s a cool little yellow seahorse we found out in front of Breezes Hotel a few months back and I remembered I had forgot to send it out. These yellow ones are super hard to find here in Curacao and are considered the Holy Grail of underwater creatures. For some reason the yellow ones are even more shy than the other colors, I think it’s because when found they just plain get more attention than the others. Aimee and I just never get tired of getting to see these guys in their natural environment, it’s one of those things I will remember more than any other creature while diving here, they are just so at peace with everything!
Today was crazy for me, I raced around doing so many last minute things including buying a new phone. I took the dogs to the ocean and attempted to work on my trail but I hit a major roadblock. Right where I stopped there is a field of prickly pear cactus! Oh man it was depressing to see, it’s going to be so much work getting thru that stuff and anything I dig up I have to re-plant so I guess I will just wait till I get back from Bonaire. I spent the day at home trying to find anything else I am going to need because when I get home from work tomorrow night it’s off to the airport for my 15 minute flight to Bonaire! Aimee will be sending your daily out for the next 5 days so fear not.
I need to get moving, will send out tomorrows mail in the morning! Bye now, Barry
Feb 22, 10 Comments (0)
 Goldentail Eel Hi friends, this is going to be real short as I just got home from work and am taking Aimee out on the town for dinner tonight. Work was unbelievably busy today and I think we may have even broke some records! Tomorrow is my last day to pack and do last minute things before leaving to the diving capital of the Caribbean.
This is a beautiful little Goldentail Moray eel I found during the day just hanging out watching the fish and divers swim by. He will most likely just stay there all day and then at night leave his little coral home and go in search of dinner. These eels are of no danger at all to divers but if you were stupid enough to put your finger in his face, he would grab it for sure!!
Sorry so short I have to get my Birthday girl to dinner, see you soon, Barry
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